John Dewey and the philosophical refounding of America

Tiffany Jones Miller writes at National Review: In sum, the core of Dewey’s progressivism, socialism, or what subsequently became known (thanks in no small part to his efforts) as liberalism, is freedom understood as spiritual fulfillment. Because the embrace of this ideal necessitated a thoroughgoing reconstruction of the American way of living, primarily by means of the positive state, it revolutionized not only the founders’ theory of limited government, but also their constitutionalism: for, as Dewey and Tufts candidly note, progressive judges have ‘smuggled in’ many valuable reforms by devising ‘”legal fictions” and by interpretations which have stretched the original text to uses undreamed of.’ Dewey was hardly alone in encouraging this transformation, but few would deny the preeminent role he played in it.”